e trees--in all these I see the mercy
and wisdom of the divinity. I feel his infinite greatness as I gaze on
the wide expanse of deep blue sea; it comes home to me at night when I
lift my eyes to the skies and see the sparkling hosts of stars roll over
my head. Who created that countless multitude, who guides them so that
they glide past in glorious harmony, and rise and set, accurately timed
to minutes and seconds, silent but full of meaning, immeasurably distant
and yet closely linked with the fate of individual men?--All this bears
witness to the existence of a God, and as you contemplate it and
admire it with thankful emotion, you feel yourself drawn near to the
Omnipotent. Aye, and even if you were deaf and blind, and lay bound and
fettered in the gloom of a closely-shut cavern, you still could feel if
love and pity and hope touched your heart. Rejoice then, child! for the
immortals have endowed you with good gifts, and granted you sound senses
by which to enjoy the beauty of creation. You exercise an art which
binds you to the divinity like a bridge; when you give utterance to your
whole soul in song that divinity itself speaks through you, and when you
hear noble music its voice appeals to your ear. All round you and within
you, you can recognize its power just as we feel it--everywhere and at
all times.

"And this incomprehensible, infinite, unfettered, bountiful and
infallibly wise Power, which penetrates and permeates the life of the
universe as it does the hearts of men, though called by different names
in different lands, is the same to every race, wherever it may dwell,
whatever its language or its beliefs. You Christians call him the
Heavenly Father, we give him the name of the Primal One. To you, too,
your God speaks in the surging seas, the waving corn, the pure light of
day; you, too, regard music which enchants your heart, and love which
draws man to man, as his gifts; and we go only a step further, giving a
special name to each phenomenon of nature, and each lofty emotion of
the soul in which we recognize the direct influence of the Most High;
calling the sea Poseidon, the corn-field Demeter, the charm of music
Apollo, and the rapture of love Eros. When you see us offering sacrifice
at the foot of a marble image you must not suppose that the lifeless,
perishable stone is the object of our adoration. The god does not
descend to inform the statue; but the statue is made after the Idea
figured forth by t